Thar Desert

EROS Cal/Val Center of Excellence (ECCOE)
Test Sites Catalog
Thar Desert
Landsat 8 LandsatLook image Path 150 Row 41 Acquired 29 Jun 2020 with ROI indicated Google Earth Image centered on Thar Desert ROI

Description

The Thar Desert test site is located within the Thar Desert in northwestern India near the border of Pakistan. The entire area of the desert (200,000 km2) remains very dry for much of the year and is prone to wind erosion that causes shifting sand dunes within the desert.  

Usability

This site has been used for inter-calibration of Wide Field Sensors (WIFS) of the Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) -1C and -1D spacecraft and Advanced WIFS (AWIFS) of IRS P6 spacecraft sensors using near synchronous acquisitions.[2]. This site has been used for vicarious calibration activities also [3]. 

Location (City, State, Country):
Thar Desert, Rajasthan, India, Asia
Landsat WRS - 2 Path / Row:
150/41
Center Latitude (degrees):
N 27.63
Center Longitude (degrees):
E 71.86
CEOS Region of Interest

N 27.63, E 71.86

Search this area in EarthExplorer (Landsat 8-9 Collection 2 Level-1) - date range, datasets, cloud cover and other criteria can be modified once initial results are returned

KML (Need help with this file?)

Altitude above sea level (meters):
481
Purpose:
Radiometry
Status:
Active

References:
  1. Srivastava, S.S., Desai, Y., Sekhar, K.S.S. et al. Identification of Suitable Natural Calibration Test Site for the Calibration of IRS Optical Sensors. J Indian Soc Remote Sens 44, 307–319 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12524-015-0475-z 
  2. Srinivas, V., S. Jayabharathi, S. Muralikrishnan, and A. Senthil Kumar. "CROSS-CALIBRATION OF IRS-1C,-1D AND-P6: WIDE ANGLE SENSORS USING SYNCHRONOUS OR NEAR SYNCHRONOUS MATCHING SCENES." 
  3. Parihar, Shailesh, L. S. Rathore, M. Mohapatra, A. K. Sharma, A. K. Mitra, R. Bhatla, R. S. Singh, Yogdeep Desai, and Shailendra S. Srivastava. "Site characterization for calibration of radiometric sensors using vicarious method." In Earth Observing Missions and Sensors: Development, Implementation, and Characterization IV, vol. 9881, p. 98811K. International Society for Optics and Photonics, 2016. 

Note: This information has been compiled by the USGS ECCOE Team, using the best sources currently known. Updates will be made as more information becomes available. Please contact eccoe@usgs.gov with any updates you would like to contribute.